The Adventure Begins
Nervous, excited and yet very calm as my good friend Gary drove me to Bournemouth station for the 09:18 train to London Waterloo. I reclaimed my suitcase from his car and we hugged and shook hands warmly at the drop off area to platform 2, the “UP” line to London.
Bournemouth railway Station
Of course I had arrived far too early and with half an hour to spare I sat in the coffee shop on the platform to await my transport on this first leg of my journey that had been in my dreams in various forms for years.
My working life was over and I was free to explore! As I sat there in the “Pumpkin Café, ( now a Starbucks of course), I mulled over what I was embarking on. A journey of many thousands of miles through unknown countries whose languages I did not speak a word of.
I stirred my tiny sachet of sugar into my cardboard cup of tea and looked at my suitcase. A small cabin case which I had weighed in at 7.6kg on the bathroom scales. For many people this would have been only enough for a long weekend but for me it had to last nearly 6 weeks! Fingers crossed there was a hotel laundry along the way.
I checked the café clock again and it was time to venture forth on the biggest adventure of my life. A sudden thought flashed through my brain, had I turned off the water in my apartment? locked the door and windows? oh my goodness, no time to turn back and check now!
“The next train on platform 2 is the South Western Railway service to London Waterloo.”
The announcement woke me from my worries.
Time to go. The planning was finished.
I have always enjoyed reading books of exploration, Scott and Shackleton across the Antarctic and Colonel Fawcett through South America and in my modest way I could understand how they were feeling, setting off into the unknown.
It had taken me about 18 months to plan this trip. For many years I was enthralled to think of a trip on the Trans-Siberian railway, but it dawned on me that this would be a long journey and possibly very cold!
Moscow was on my list of places to visit as well as Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia and the Great Wall of China. I had also seen videos online about “Miniature Wonderland” in Hamburg, Germany, probably the biggest and certainly the best model railway in the world.
So my planning started, I booked a flight to Hamburg from Heathrow, there was no Going back now!
So that was how it started. I looked at the map and googled a few things and it seemed I could take the train from Hamburg all the way to Moscow with a ferry or two along the way.
The exciting possibilities of this journey helped to overcome the hectic time I had in my final couple of years at work and with visas to obtain for Russia and China there was plenty to occupy my mind.
Russian Visa Centre, London
So off to London, in a sign of the times there is no longer a buffet car on the train , not even a trolley service for a cup of tea. As the train wound its way to London I passed through all those familiar places, Christchurch, Southampton, Winchester, Basingstoke, all very familiar from my many journeys to London and I mulled over the very unfamiliar places I was going to. Google maps is not the best at showing what it is like in Mongolia or Kazakhstan and that is what made it more exciting.
After checking into the Premier Inn Hub Hotel at Kings Cross I ventured out for a walk on a bright spring afternoon. I came across the nearby canal where many long and very well decorated canal boats were moored. Such a pretty place right in the heart of central London.
The Regents Canal, just 300m from Kings Cross station
St Pancras Basin, with many canal boats and the museum on the opposite bank
I walked along the bank of the canal as far as Regents Park which was a very pleasant time, so peaceful in the heart of the capital city.
Photo Courtesy of “The Friends of Regents Park”
So back to kings Cross and a pizza with a cold bottle of Peroni in the nearby restaurant and so to bed, dreaming of the weeks to come.
See you all tomorrow I hope
TTFN
Bibbley
